6. When I looked in it, I saw animals, wild beasts, snakes, and birds.
7. I heard a voice saying to me, “Peter, get up! Kill these and eat them.”
8. But I said, “Lord, I can't do that! I've never taken a bite of anything that is unclean and not fit to eat.”
9. The voice from heaven spoke to me again, “When God says that something can be used for food, don't say it isn't fit to eat.”
10. This happened three times before it was all taken back into heaven.
11. Suddenly three men from Caesarea stood in front of the house where I was staying.
12. The Holy Spirit told me to go with them and not to worry. Then six of the Lord's followers went with me to the home of a man
13. who told us that an angel had appeared to him. The angel had ordered him to send to Joppa for someone named Simon Peter.
14. Then Peter would tell him how he and everyone in his house could be saved.
15. After I started speaking, the Holy Spirit was given to them, just as the Spirit had been given to us at the beginning.
16. I remembered that the Lord had said, “John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
17. God gave those Gentiles the same gift that he gave us when we put our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. So how could I have gone against God?
18. When they heard Peter say this, they stopped arguing and started praising God. They said, “God has now let Gentiles turn to him, and he has given life to them!”
19. Some of the Lord's followers had been scattered because of the terrible trouble that started when Stephen was killed. They went as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, but they told the message only to the Jews.